Get Well Soon
by Kiddo20
Summary: When Naruto doesn't show up for a meeting, Shikamaru decides to track him down only to find the man was quite sick. Some spoilers for manga. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Series, unrelated to others.


Disclaimer: Neither the characters nor the artwork are mine. This is purely a fan work and I am making no money off of the use of any material.

Note: This one got away from me and I kind of just let it go – hence the length. I still think that it turned out rather interestingly.

Full image can be found at the following link (as always on here - take out the spaces and put in the (dot com) part on your own):

chibi-nazumi. deviantart (dot com/) art/ ShikaNaru-collab-363135329

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Story Nine

Get Well Soon

"Tsch..."

A calloused finger tapped evenly against a desk deep in the heart of the specially reinforced Hokage offices complex in the reconstructed Konoha.

The finger gained force and thunked down hard against the grain of the wood before another frustrated noise pushed itself through the throat of one Shikamaru Nara. The Chunin pushed his chair away the desk, disregarding the wood's creak in protest, stomping around the desk and out of the door, shoulders tense as rock.

No one questioned the sudden ill temper of the Chunin who practically oozed 'Keep Away' vibes as he worked his way through the labyrinth of halls that had been constructed to specifically to confuse those unfamiliar with the building. Instead, they all suddenly found tasks to do so as to not meet the man's gaze or get caught gawking.

"Yo Shikamaru!"

...someone missed the memo.

Shikamaru stopped and turned sharply on his heel, training a glare that could curdle milk on the one-eyed jonin who dared to stop him.

"Kakashi..." he trailed off. No '–sensei'or anything else, just the name hanging there in the air like an explosive tag waiting for a touch of chakra before it blew up.

Kakashi's visable eye twitched and he took a half-step back. "Eh...heh...heh..."

"I blame you." Shikamaru practically hissed before turning on his heal again and continuing out of the building.

"What did I do?" Kakashi said softly to himself while scratching at the back of his silver haired head, but Shikamaru caught it and stopped once more but didn't turn around.

"You've rubbed off on Naruto. He's an hour and a half late...and I don't have anything to fill in my time with anymore..."

It was surprising how much menace Shikamaru could slip into that simple statement and Kakashi cringed...

"Sorry...I'll be on time for things now. Promise!" Kakashi held up his hands in compliance taking a few more steps back before darting away, for once actually contemplating a change in his engrained pattern of all of these years. Who would of thought that _Shikamaru_ would be so terrifying…

Shikamaru stalked through the streets of Konoha, fists jammed deep into his pockets wondering just what Naruto's excuse would be and preparing counters to all of them, ready to throw in the blonde's face as he used that eye-less smile and scratched his head trying to make himself out to be dumber than he really was. By now, everyone knew that he was quicker on the uptake than he liked to be seen, though no one could quite peg him still – but one day Shikamaru would manage to find out how much was dimwittedness and how much was the shrewdness of a child who had grown up knowing when to show his cards and when to play it close to the vest.

By the time he was walking up to Naruto's apartment, he had worked himself up into a state somewhere between righteous fury and apoplectic rage. He dashed up the stairs to the building, trying to calm himself a bit, listening to the rest of the world around him. Kids laughed dashing through the street, someone's radio played lightly through an open window, and old man groaned, bent over picking up something dropped in the street, a rough cough tore out of another person's throat.

Konoha was as lively as ever.

That cough hacked out again and Shikamaru shuddered – it sounded like Asuma used to when he had a cold. That had never combined well with the man's smoking habit and the sound used to make everyone around cringe.

Unfortunately from the sound of it, he was about to run right past the sick man in his jog up the stairs to Naruto's apartment on the top floor of the five story building.

He rounded the corner to face the staircase and stopped dead.

Sitting towards the top of the stairs, just shy of the landing, was Naruto. The ninja was ever wearing orange, this time just as a t-shirt, with a pair of blue pants from a traditional Konoha ninja outfit and a pair of blue sandals. But what caught the Nara's attention was the state of the man. Naruto's skin was pale, almost reaching Sai's levels of fairness, but a strong flush covered his face, countered only by the dark smudges that were the bags under the blonde's eyes. Sweat had dampened the man's hairline and a bead occasionally drifted down his face. A shaky hand, clutched at the railing next to him as though it was a life-line. His whole body jerked as another round of coughs rocketed through his chest.

Shit.

Naruto was _sick_.

His anger fled in a blink and Shikamaru darted forward to catch the young man who had tried to struggle to his feet and tipped forward off of his current step, "Naruto!"

Shikamaru's arms went around the blonde's back as his shoulder slammed a bit too hard into Naruto's chest setting off another coughing fit.

Disturbingly weak arms were around Shikamaru after a moment, a slight tremble noticeable in them. "Shika..." breath "...maru." The blonde's croaked. "Sorry...late..."

"Never mind," Shikamaru admonished softly. He shifted around so that Naruto could lay against his back, hitching him until he had a good grip under his legs and proceeded to slowly amble back up the stairs to Naruto's place.

"Sorry..." he heard again as Naruto laid his cheek against his friend's shoulder, letting escape an exhausted sigh.

"You weren't going to come all the way to the office like this were you?" He asked quietly, turning to go up another flight.

"No..." was mumbled against his shoulder. "Ino...shop..." The poor man sounded half-asleep but that actually made sense. The Yamanaka flower shop was across the street from Naruto's building.

"You were going to tell her to pass on to me that you were sick?"

A grunt was the only response but that trigger more coughing.

"Tsch..." Shikamaru said for lack of anything else.

Naruto's apartment had been left unlocked so he slipped them in and managed to get the blonde into the bed. He was out cold already, the exertion of trying to just get down the stairs in his state proving too much. Sighing, he laid the man out comfortably and pulled the blankets over top. He ran his hands through his hair for a moment before going to the window...and yes, there was Ino – working on some display in the shop window.

"Ino!" He called out, cupping his hands around his mouth. "You come here for a sec?"

Her pale eyes had spied him immediately and she nodded, leaning into the shop to say something before passing off her apron and hopping up to the window.

"What do you and Naruto need?" she asked as Shikamaru stepped aside to allow her in through the window.

"He's sick, can you take a look at him?" He gestured towards the bed where Naruto continued to doze.

Ino's eyes darted about quickly, taking in what information she could get from sight alone. "Symptoms?" She asked quickly, approaching the bed and reaching for the blonde's wrist for a pulse.

"I've only been here a few minutes but, fever, cough – _bad_ cough, weakness in the limbs, exhaustion."

Her hand rested against the blonde's forehead, "Can you check his medicine cabinet – see if he has a thermometer."

Shikamaru slipped out of the bedroom to the small bathroom down the hall. It always baffled him how someone of Naruto's personality could be so clean and orderly but Naruto always liked to throw people for a loop. He was quickly able to find a thermometer in the immaculately organized cabinet which he grabbed. He also took note of a small collection of medicines sitting on the counter against the wall before walking back out to Ino.

"Here." He passed over the instrument, "Also, he seems to have been taking a cough suppressant and aspirin –at least those bottles were sitting on the counter."

Ino nodded taking in the information as the thermometer beeped and she removed it from under his tongue. "He's running a fever of 102.2 (39 Celsius)." She noted, sighing and placing it on the bedside table next to a half-filled glass of water.

She reached out and shook gently at Naruto's shoulders. "Sorry Naruto, but I need you awake for a minute..."

Naruto groaned in the back of his throat and creaked open his eyes. "Ino...?" he whispered. "Tell…Shika…sick…"

"Morning sunshine," Ino greeted with a smile, "I will. Now tell me what's wrong and you can go back to sleep."

"Cough...hot...headache...chest hurts..." as this point Naruto started to cough again, turning roughly on his side to hack away from his friends.

Ino waited calmly while Naruto composed himself and Shikamaru had to check himself again. Ino had been doing medical training almost as long as Sakura, and while she would never have the skill that their pink-haired friend did, she was more than competent and tended to work with little kids at the hospital. Shikamaru smirked for a moment thinking that that said something about Naruto's temperament.

"Alright Naruto," her calm voice broke into his thoughts. Ino was helping Naruto to a drink of water before settling their friend back on his bed. "Have you had any nausea? Vomiting?"

Naruto shook his head slowly, "But I haven't eaten much." The voice was rough and croaking, cracking three times in that short sentence. "Just toast and water mostly...too tired..."

"Alright, that's okay Naruto – anything else?

"Jus...tired..." his eyelids drooped.

"One more question – when was the last time you took any medicine?"

Cough, "Las...nigh..."

"Alright, thanks Naruto. You go back to sleep now." She gently patted the man's head as he drifted off again while her other hand began to emit a green glow as it hovered over Naruto's chest.

"So..." Shikamaru stepped up next to Ino as she examined their friend.

"It looks like a chest infection – their whole team got caught up in a huge storm on their last mission and Sakura has been treating Sai for pneumonia for the last few days." Ino said softly as the green glow ceased.

"Does he have pneumonia?" He gestured to Naruto, feeling guilty that he had been so angry at the man earlier for such a stupid reason like being late for a meeting.

"No, but if it carries on like this it might turn into it." She pulled the sheets up higher on Naruto's sleeping frame. "Are you busy now?"

"Uh...no..." He responded after thinking for a moment. In fact because Naruto hadn't arrived when he was supposed to Shikamaru had completed all of his paperwork for the day to kill time. "I'm done for today unless an emergency comes up."

"Good," she said stepping back, "consider this your emergency – you're on bed watch."

"What?!"

Ino smiled to push back a laugh. "I'm going to go to the hospital and get some antibiotics for Naruto and to pull him off the duty roster until he's well enough to go on missions again – knowing him it will just be a few days. Until I get back, you stay here with him." She explained with a lot of unnecessary finger pointing between herself, himself and the unconscious blonde on the bed, as though he didn't know who she was talking about.

"Alright alright, fine – just go..." he groaned out in his usual aggrieved tone, pulling a chair over to the bed as Ino left from the window, hopping over rooftops to get to the hospital quicker.

Shikamaru flopped into the chair and stared up at the ceiling before taking careful note of his friend. The face was still flushed, hair still dampened and the blonde was starting to fidget beneath the sheets and push against them. He sighed again before getting up and heading to the kitchen. He grabbed a bowl from a cabinet and a clean hand towel from under the sink – even the damn _hand towel_ is _orange_ – and filled the bowl with cool water, tossing the towel in to grow damp. He moved back towards Naruto and sat at his bedside once again. He rang out the cloth and gently he started to pat around the blonde's face, cooling the flesh where it touched, he moved down to the neck next as remaining rivulets of water trickled down his face and into the hairline. He even wrapped the towel temporarily around each wrist, trying to cool the blood in a place that it is close to the surface so it could carry that chill throughout the body – something his mother used to do for him when he was sick as a kid.

Naruto hummed appreciatively in his sleep.

Shikamaru shook his head with a humorless laugh, "Just get well soon Naruto...I can't yell at you for missing meetings when you're like this."

Naruto mumbled something in his sleep, Shikamaru leaning forward on instinct to try and make it out as it ended with a groan. Not just any groan either – every man on the planet would recognize that grown, especially accompanied by the squirming that was occurring under the sheets.

'He's having a sex dream...' Shikamaru almost couldn't believe it. And he had to stay here and listen to it 'cause if he left Ino would kick his ass...

Naruto's hands clenched at the sheets and Shikamaru closed his eyes and cringed – this really couldn't be happening...

"She..." a small gasp was accented by a cough.

'Please someone make it stop...'

"She...maru..."

The shadow-nin's eyes flew wide. He wasn't...he _couldn't_...

"Shikamaru..."

Thank the gods he was sitting down because he would have ended up flat on his ass after that. Naruto groaned the shadow-nin's name again, a hoarse cough worked its way out afterwards.

Naruto's dream had the man caught strong and he began to push the sheets farther down the bed and he twisted about, unconsciously tightening the sheets around him.

"...love you."

He swore his heart stopped. He would swear to it in court. Before his own mother. On the honor of Asuma-sensei and his own late father. His heart just frozen for an instant – forgetting to do its job in the shock of that moment. Then it thudded back into life, pounding a painful tap dance against his ribcage. Faster than he could ever remember it being when he wasn't in battle.

The little groans and mewling noises continued and _dammit_ was Naruto always so _vocal_ in his sleep?!

Shikamaru for once in his life had no idea what to do at all, or how to proceed. Instead he sat in mute shock, both hoping that Ino would return quickly and dreading what she would say when she did if this was the scene that she walked into.

Shikamaru was positive that _he _was the one bearing a fever now – in fact his face might be radiating waves out into the air around him from the blush that covered his normally pale skin.

He shifted uncomfortably as the blonde bit his lower lip with a low hum to accompany it. His eyes darted about, studying the wall calendar, mostly filled with training regime information and mission start dates, checking the titles of the few books lining the shelves, counting the empty hangers he could see inside the cracked opening of the wardrobe. He hummed to himself, desperate to drown out the noise but it seems like it was an arrow shot directly into his ear drum.

Soon however, he realized a horrifying baffling fact. His own shifting had turned to squirming. And his pants were starting to become a little tight.

Dear fucking god he was getting hard.

He was getting hard…from listening to Naruto…having a fever-induced sex dream…about himself…

He was going to hell.

He jolted up from the chair and dashed to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him, honestly _hoping_ that it woke the sick man up.

He couldn't fault Naruto for having dreams, especially for whatever the fever had brought to mind. He couldn't be angry at the man, no matter how much he wanted to be just now. He couldn't do any of that.

He apparently _could _become frustrated in his own right just from listening though. And what the hell was that about? What about hearing a man moan, one of your _best friends_, is supposed to induce an erection in oneself?

He splashed water on his face trying desperately to think of anything else to make his erection wilt but nothing seemed to work. Not even thoughts of his grandmother naked could do it no matter how disturbing it was to even think of conjuring up that image in his mind. The more he tried to push the whole thing out of his mind, the more his mind decided to double down on the memory. Replaying over and over again and louder and more lewdly than he knew it had been the first time.

"Fuck…!" He breathed as softly as he could manage as he hardened to a state beyond deflation. He had to do something about it now.

"God dammit…" he mumbled under his breath. 'I'm about to jerk off in the bathroom of my sick friend who is currently in his bed having fevered dreams about me likely doing something of similar or related nature.'

He stared as his reflection in the mirror and shook his head before turning around. He couldn't bear to see this actually happening.

He palmed his dick through the material of his pants, gasping as the slight friction sent a shiver up his spine. He bit his lip to muffle any noise, sliding down his slacks and inhaling sharply as the cool air of the apartment reached his turgid member. He tried to think of something else, _anything else_, even his usual jerk off fantasies, but his psyche could not be persuaded. Images of Naruto's flushed face flashed across the back of his closed eyelids, and the moans, without the accompanying coughing soundtrack, seemed to echo in his ears. His hand slipped along with practiced ease, tugging the head at just the right moment, speeding up at an alarming rate. He felt his chest heave and his arm jolt faster than he felt it should, but he could not stop. Like a runaway train, completion was bearing down on him and he could do nothing but brace for impact.

It was a mind fuck.

Seriously.

He erupted over his hand but his mind completely blanked as well. Floating in a happy puddle of sated lust, no thoughts passed through his mind as he waiting to come down from the natural high.

"Son of a…" he growled out when he finally regained his faculties. He quickly grabbed tissue off the role and cleaned himself and the goddamned door he had been facing. Not to mention the foot print on the wall (when had he fucking _braced_ himself?!), at which point he released he had forgotten to take his shoes off when carrying the blonde in – like that was the height of his worries right now.

He had just jerked off to his friend's wet dream, one his friend didn't even know he had been listening in on.

Shikamaru couldn't bring himself to look in the mirror as he made sure the bathroom was clean and that no one could tell what it was that he had done in there. He swore that secret would accompany him to the grave.

He was a teenage guy – weird things happen to teenage guys and their libidos.

Any other opinions on the matter would be disregarded until further analysis could take place.

Later.

When his mind was doing fucking summersaults and would actually focus on what the hell was going on here.

He slipped out into the now quiet bedroom and sat back in his chair, staring out the window. He couldn't bring himself to look at his friend now sleeping quietly in his bed.

A massive bout of coughs woke Naruto from his slumber, leaning over the side of the bed, one hand clutching the edge for leverage so that he wouldn't tumble off of the side of the bed onto the hardwood floor beneath it.

Shikamaru righted the poor guy mechanically, handing the glass of water to him before letting him settle back down and slip back off to sleep with a quiet, "thanks."

Ino arrived soon after that, Sakura in tow with medications and the confused man took his leave.

If you would have told him that morning that today was to have transpired as it had Shikamaru would have scoffed. There was just no way that the student of the pervy sage, known for his 'sexy jutsu' and a raging crush on Sakura throughout his life, could every have an erotic dream about a _male_ friend. Least of all Shikamaru himself!

He stumbled into his apartment, having left his mother's house to her loud dissent months ago, and sat down with a muffled thump on one of the chairs at his kitchen table, one of the few pieces of furniture in his sparse apartment.

There was a leaden feeling in his stomach, a weight that sat their searing his insides with cold, that he only got when he couldn't understand something. 'So work it out!' he ordered himself, placing his hands in the familiar position of a circle that he used to help him think and letting them hang between his thighs on loose wrists.

Facts first.

Naruto might not be as straight as everyone had first thought.

Naruto might be interested in the Nara himself.

Naruto had said, "I love you."

Naruto had clearly been having a sex dream.

Shikamaru had no idea what else might have been going on in that dream.

Shikamaru had _reacted_ to Naruto despite his best efforts.

Alright.

Now bring in outside information. Naruto hadn't been making passes at Sakura for a while, despite what he said to his father's edo-tensei on the battlefield about the pink-haired medi-nin being his girlfriend. Actually, on second thought, the fourth Hokage had brought it up on his own and Naruto had blushed and let the man think what he would.

Shikamaru hadn't noticed at first, but during the final battle of the war, when the blonde can cloaked everyone in his chakra, he had only done so after Shikamaru had fallen to the enemy, when the shadow-nin himself thought that he was about to die. And the cloak that had shielded him had seemed denser than what surrounded Ino or Chouji, though he hadn't looked in-depth at anyone else's so he couldn't say that there wasn't just some variation amongst them all, which would be more than easy to except considering the sheer amount he had to maintain, while fighting his own battle at the same time.

Naruto had been intentionally spending time with Shikamaru, trying to learn to develop tactics before a battle, rather than flying from the seat of his pants during them. If Naruto could be that creative under the most adverse of conditions, hopefully he could be even more so without the added stress once he figured out a method. In fact, it was for just such a meeting that Naruto had been a no-show for earlier.

Naruto had invited Shikamaru out for dinner after some of these occasions, the blonde's treat, and didn't offer up ramen as the food of choice, instead letting Shikamaru choose no matter how expensive the other man's choice (jokingly made) had been.

Now what about _him_? What explained _his_ reaction?

Even as a child he had kept half a sleep eye on Naruto. He couldn't help it. Naruto was something of an enigma, and Shikamaru loved puzzles. Who was this boy? Why was he so loud, so brash, so dumb? So kind, so brave, so determined? Nothing had ever added up with Naruto. How could one treated so badly, so often have a smile on his face? And lots of times it was fake, but more than enough it was real, a genuine grin would tug at those cheeks, pulling them so high on his face that his eyes were forced closed. Shikamaru knew when they were real – he'd studied that face enough while pretending to sleep in class so Iruka-sensei wouldn't call on him.

He knew he was one of the first in their class to see it at the Chunin exams. Outside of his own team, who still doubted the blonde to an extent before Gaara was faced and taken down, Shikamaru was the one who thought that Naruto could make it. And he felt a sense of smugness inside when Kiba lost to the "dead-last" and for the first time he wanted to call out that he had known it, had seen it coming. He wanted to laugh at all of the doubting and disbelieving faces around him. But that was too much work, so he had just smirked instead, sending a little nod Naruto's way and watching the fights continue.

Shikamaru was lazy. Incredibly so. Even for a Nara, his laziness was exceptional. So for something to inspire him to work, to push, to put forth effort, well – that had to be something exceptional as well. Naruto was that something. Shikamaru knew that Naruto would accomplish great things, and he wanted to be there every step of the way – no matter how much work it was.

Shikamaru had never really been interested in girls. They were a lot of work and even his keen mind couldn't comprehend their actions. He never understood why the rest of his classmates went all googly-eyed. His "dream" of the average wife with the average children, was more based on the _average_ thing, than the wife and children thing, and his desire to blend into the crowd. That and as a clan heir – it was his responsibility to help the clan carry on to the next generation. That meant children at some point he had supposed and so formulated his dream...which was really more of a plan.

...which he had just blown spectacularly out of the water.

As Shikamaru sat there, doing the surprisingly simple calculations in his mind he realized something.

Something frankly huge.

He liked Naruto. As in _liked_ Naruto. Beyond just respect and friendship, both of which had already been given freely to the blonde, but into the realm of love and caring and a relationship. Something so obvious to look back on now, that had completely escaped him the first time around because, like so many things involving Naruto, it just comes from an unexpected place that he would never have noticed before that even Shikamaru couldn't piece together until all the different paths finally converged and there was no turning back now that everything had come to fruition.

Most people would be freaking out at the sudden realization that their sexuality wasn't what they themselves had always assumed it to be. But Shikamaru had figured out the truth of the situation and it wouldn't do any good to rail against it or deny it just because he hadn't been aware of it before. It would cause more trouble than he wanted to deal with to deny reality.

His own quick sexual identity crisis aside, the other equation wasn't quite so simple. He heard parts of Naruto's dream, but who is to really know what was going on inside the man's mind?

So he had two pieces of information to work with now.

He started running possibilities and probabilities through his mind.

Once he expanded it out to account for differing actions on either of their parts he ended up with countless different potential outcomes.

It was going to be a long night.

By the next morning, Shikamaru had reached several conclusions.

One – he wasn't cut out for all-nighters when there was none of the adrenaline of war pumping through his veins.

Two – He actually had it worse than he thought, continuing to analyze his interest in Naruto over the years in this new light.

Three – he would have to speak to Naruto. The blonde could be shrewd when he wanted to be and would be able to tell that something was up with Shikamaru. And there was an insatiable curiosity dancing about in the back of Shikamaru's mind that would not stop it's annoying jig until something had been done about the issue at hand.

Four – Naruto had passed on his illness.

A small cough bubbled up in Shikamaru's chest and he shook his head. Staying up all night played havoc with one's immune system, and the shadow-nin had decided to do so immediately after having prolonged exposure to someone with a large chest infection.

He brewed some tea to fight against the increasing strength of the tickle in the back of his throat and made a mental note to go by the hospital today and get some medication so that he didn't become quite as bad as Naruto had. Especially since Naruto had Kurama to help him fight things like this off – likely why his hadn't developed into pneumonia like his teammate's had – but Shikamaru had no such entity within to aid him.

He washed his face to force himself to wake up just the tiniest bit and down his tea before heading out. Better to do it now, while he still had the initiative and he still didn't feel too ill. He'd fall asleep if he stopped now though and that wouldn't help anyone.

He knocked lightly on Naruto's door and heard a croaking, "Who is it?"

"It's me," he intoned, letting himself in, knowing that no one had bothered to even think about locking the door yesterday with everything else going on.

…and their frequent arrivals through the window instead of the door.

Sure enough, Shikamaru met no resistance whatsoever and walked in to see a vertical Naruto, looking exhausted but more coherent if the clear look in his eyes was any indication, clearly trying to make his way slowly to the door.

"Hey Shikamaru," the blonde greeted, waving his hand to tell him to come through while turning and sinking into a chair at the table where the blond was eating some thin chicken soup.

"Do you mind?" He asked quietly, gesturing to the food.

"Go ahead, you need to eat." Shikamaru replied, sitting on the other side of the table. "Feeling any better?"

"Loads." A loud slurp echoed around the room. "Medicine helps."

"That's good. Was yesterday the worst? I only ask 'cause I think you passed it to me..." and a light cough escape from Shikamaru's chest.

Naruto looked stricken. "I'm so sorry..."

Shikamaru waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Being sick means time off work to sleep."

Naruto laughed a little. "That sounds like you..."

After a pause where Shikamaru decided how to begin he asked, "So how much of what happened yesterday do you remember?"

Naruto furrowed his brow. "I wasn't really awake for a lot of it...let's see. I tried to get to Ino's to pass on that I was sick...um...then Ino was here...and you...then Ino was here and you weren't...then I took some medicine and woke up this morning." Naruto nodded slowly with each additional point.

"Ahh...alright. I found you on the stairs trying to get to Ino's. I called her over once I got you back up here." Shikamaru filled in the blanks.

The men were quiet, mostly, as Naruto finished his soup.

"What else?" He asked once he was done.

"Hmm?"

"This is too early for you right? And our meeting wasn't _that_ important for you to need to come out here as soon as possible to talk with me. Ino said I was off the active duty roster, so you're not here for village business. So what else brings you over here so early today?"

"Even now, I'm still surprised how shrewd you can be when you want to..." Shikamaru responded with small grin tugging at the corned of his mouth.

Naruto sat back waiting, despite the occasional cough shaking his frame, and waited. Naruto had learned patience somewhere along the way as well.

'Well…he _is_ a sage after all…' He thought sardonically to himself.

"Yesterday, while you were sleeping...you were talking in your sleep..." Shikamaru paused, uncertain of how to continue.

So imagine his surprise when Naruto's face suddenly turned a bright red.

"I thought Kurama was kidding..." He muttered.

Shikamaru sat forward, "About...?"

Naruto started playing with a knot in the wood, running his finger around it, and staring at it as Shikamaru noticed the blush spreading to the tops of Naruto's ears.

"That...god don't make me say it..." Naruto was shifting uncomfortably and Shikamaru was being reminded strongly of the previous day. When Shikamaru said nothing though, Naruto sighed. "Fine. I like you okay?" Naruto still wasn't meeting the gaze of the shadow ninja and focused on that knot like it could answer all of life's questions…or like it might swallow him whole.

He wasn't sure which one Naruto hoped it would be.

Shikamaru was beaming though. "Good." He said simply and leaned over the table, lifting Naruto's fevered face up to look him in the eye. "I like you too." And he kissed the blonde. Just a short meeting of lips as though to stand as proof, but Naruto pushed him away.

"I'm sick."

Shikamaru shrugged, "Me too. Thanks again."

"But...but..." Naruto was apparently rendered speechless. "Are..." Naruto scratched at his arm, mostly as an excuse to cover his midsection in an unconscious defensive move, protecting his vitals while hunching slightly to make himself smaller and less of a target. "Are you sure?" Naruto had never been so quiet. Or sounded so much like the teenager he still was – still just a child no matter what he had done, or had had to do in order to protect the people that he cared about.

"Naruto," Shikamaru walked across the table and pulled his friend into a hug that the other did not fight but did not yet return either. "I don't often brag, but I am the smartest of our class even if my test scores sucked in school." He spoke softly directly into Naruto's ear, trying to sound earnest and comforting at the same time. "I am sure. I recognize the feeling...at least now I do." He added, mentally acknowledging the kick in the right direction that he had needed. As though to add further proof to his conclusion, his insides were currently all warm and fuzzy that he instinctually knew had nothing to do with any illness he might have and everything to do with the normally rambunctious teen in his arms. Shikamaru pulled said arms just a bit tighter and smiled as Naruto's own arms finally came up around his back, gently, hesitatingly – waiting to be told to pull back.

"I still can't believe I had that kind of dream with you here..." He grumbled. "Kurama's laughing at me…though he says that you're not innocent either…" Naruto pulled his head back to look at Shikamaru's face. "What does that mean?"

The genius could only stare, "How the hell…?" he muttered.

Naruto frowned, "He says he has a good nose…"

Shikamaru clenched his eyes. And groaned. "Fuck…"

"Okay, seriously, now you have to tell me…" Naruto goaded, a small smile on his face.

"Well…let's just say…I enjoyed the show…" Shikamaru knew that there was a massive blush racing across his face, but even with all of the embarrassment he couldn't help the smile that was beginning to pull across his face.

Naruto furrowed his brow for a moment before his face lit up with understanding. "You…" Naruto shook his head slowly from side to side. "First the Third. Then the pervy sage. Now you. I'm surrounded by perverts…" There was a laughing twinkle in Naruto's bright eyes. "Beating off to the moans of an unaware, bed-ridden man." Naruto actually tsked after that.

"Hey – I went to the bathroom. I wasn't like…_looming_ over you or anything." Shikamaru teased back, kind of liking the light-hearted banter that the two were sharing. It even made something as awkward as this situation seem not nearly as bad as it should have been.

"You jerked off in my bathroom!" Naruto mock-shouted, acting almost comically outraged.

Shikamaru laughed, loudly, and caused himself to cough, at which point Naruto pushed him back and had him in a chair with tea in front of him faster than Shikamaru could respond, quickly having switched to serious.

"God – first thing I do is get you sick..."

Shikamaru smiled ruefully as he sipped at the too-hot lemon tea for lack of something else to do. "It's alright. I'm telling you. Sick days are wonderful things." Now he smirked, "Besides, now you have to take care of me." He cocked his head to the side, "And technically, getting me sick was the _second_ thing you did."

Naruto blushed again, and swatted lightly at the other man's shoulder. But then he slowly reached out for Shikamaru's hand, lightly curling his fingers around Shikamaru's relaxed palm. "Okay...?"

Shikamaru tightened his fingers in the grip. "Perfect."


End file.
